Out
of the Shadows

History
has a tendency to happen whether anyone watches or not. In fact, significant
developments more often occur in the shadows of secrecy, leaving their flashier
but less important brethren to occupy the limelight.

DEPLETED
MINDS

Much
has been made, for example, of NATO's use of depleted uranium over the past
five years. Completely ignored ten years ago in Iraq, barely mentioned five
years ago in Bosnia, depleted uranium seems to have finally burst out in the
open this year, after the effects of its use in Kosovo became too
hard to ignore. The factual argument is actually pretty simple. Uranium
of any kind is a cancerous pathogen if it makes its way into the human body.
Depleted uranium – such as the one used in M1 tank armor and armor-penetrating
munitions of the US army and many of its NATO allies – is highly toxic when
it explodes against a target. And yet, a constant stream of denials both of
the science and the effects has come out of NATO over the past few weeks.

Granted,
confessing to harm is hard to do. Since the days of King James I in the 1600s,
people have claimed that tobacco was harmful. Only recently did the US medical
community admit this was a fact. Soon thereafter, lawsuits and greedy government
bureaucrats forced the tobacco companies to do the same. So it should not surprise
anyone that the Pentagon and NATO are less than eager to blame DU for the "Gulf/Balkans
War Syndrome." After all, someone will have to foot the bill to compensate
all the American and Allied soldiers who came down with cancer – not to mention
the civilians those soldiers bombed, though for them restitution may
never materialize.

Therein,
then, lies the answer to the seemingly irrational ravings of some eager allies
and clients or NATO, who rushed to blame the furor over DU on Milosevic,
Serbs, and even
Russians, grasping for straws in order to suck up to their patrons and masters.

EDUCATIONAL
AGENDAS

The
stark difference between private and public agendas is perhaps best embodied
by the bandits who had invaded the border zone between sovereign Serbia and
NATO-occupied Kosovo last October. Two weeks ago, they publicly announced their
demands to the Serbian authorities: international military intervention, no
less, and full NATO occupation of their designated "Eastern Kosovo."
Such a demand would be completely unacceptable to any government, anywhere.
A handful of Americans at Waco was attacked by tanks and torched alive for much
less. But because of what NATO propaganda claimed about the Serbs in 1999, any
move to crush the bandits would run into public condemnation by foreign journalists
who have become quite friendly with the so-called Presevo Liberation Army.

Far
from the public's (selectively) prying eyes, these same "rebels" have
found it necessary to hijack a truck transporting money
for teachers in Kosovo. Somehow, the fact that teachers in Kosovska Kamenica
were about to get their pay was a major threat to the security of Albanians
in Presevo. Then again, the teachers and the children in Kamenica were Serbs,
and the money was Yugoslav dinars – currency outlawed in Kosovo by NATO's occupation
authorities – so it is no wonder that the matter went largely unnoticed. NATO
troops did make some noise, but action of any kind remains but a distant possibility.

THE MONTENEGRO
MINUET

It
is no doubt helping the Albanian bandits that the government of Serbia currently
has more pressing problems – most of all, the ever-increasingly separatist tendencies
of Montenegro's ruling regime, led by America's golden boy Milo Djukanovic.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that Djukanovic is
determined to separate Montenegro from Yugoslavia and finish its makeover
into his personal fiefdom. In mid-December it seemed Zoran Djindjic's victory
in Serbia's governmental elections might further his plans; analysts openly
speculated that Djindjic was planning to make a deal with Djukanovic and leave
his chief political rival, federal president Vojislav Kostunica, out in the
cold. In recent days, however, Djindjic has moved
away from Djukanovic, supporting Kostunica's proposal for a new federal
Constitution.

Kostunica's
proposal, by the way, envisions Yugoslavia the way the United States once were
– with a small, limited and efficient federal government and extensive powers
for the states. The alternative, offered by Djukanovic's regime after it rejected
Kostunica's proposal, is a confederacy even less workable than the neighboring
NATO protectorate of Bosnia. But that was just a pro forma gesture on
Djukanovic's part, for public relations purposes only. He is frantically working
to hold a referendum on a declaration of independence, regardless of what Belgrade
does. The little-noticed fact that Djukanovic's government recently had trade
talks with Albania – even though official Tirana is refusing to re-establish
diplomatic ties with Belgrade – further illuminates the situation.

PERPLEXED
IN BELGRADE

Though
seemingly acting in concert over Montenegro, Serbia's ruling circles are hardly
united on anything else. Their behavior can be described only as "a mystery
inside a riddle, wrapped in an enigma." For example, Yugoslavia's foreign
minister Goran Svilanovic recently visited
Washington and met with Madeleine Albright – a woman still considered the
embodiment of evil by most Serbs who were bombed at her initiative almost two
years ago. They reportedly discussed the possibility of having Slobodan Milosevic
tried for war crimes in Belgrade. The Hague Inquisition promptly demanded Milosevic's
head. Its head inquisitor, Carla DelPonte ( the woman who obediently indicted
Milosevic to help the NATO war effort) will reportedly bring up the issue during
her visit to Belgrade in late January.

President
Kostunica, however, refused
to meet with her, sending a signal that Belgrade is by no means willing
to do the bidding of Albright, the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia
(ICTY), or anyone else. Further ruffling lots of feathers, Kostunica met
with Slobodan Milosevic on Saturday, and discussed with him the current
situation and the future of Yugoslavia. Apart from the usual foul language of
the ICTY, this meeting also provoked loud
criticism from some members of Kostunica's coalition. Part of their criticism
was also aimed at Kostunica's publication of the new constitutional proposal,
which apparently was not discussed in the coalition's ruling committee.

Zoran
Djindjic – not yet Prime Minister, since electoral irregularities are holding
up the formation of the new government – also criticized Kostunica's meeting
with Milosevic, but supported the constitutional proposal. Djindjic's mysterious
ways are no mystery to those who know him. He lacks vision, says Yugoslavia's
new ambassador to Washington, Milan
St. Protic. Political commentator Aleksandar Tijanic adds that Djindjic's
other favorites are money, power and shortcuts through the system. No man is
better suited to operating in the dark shadows of Serbian politics these days,
though what is good for him is by no means good for the rest of the country.

THE ACCUSED

Seemingly
less mysterious is the sensational surrender of the former Bosnian Serb leader
Biljana Plavsic to the Hague Inquisition. She was secretly accused of genocide,
war crimes and crimes against humanity last year, and decided to turn herself
in last week. A veritable forest of articles, analyses and breaking news failed
to explain why Plavsic went voluntarily or if she was promised
a deal by the prosecution in exchange for incriminating her colleagues.
One source has even claimed that Plavsic went in order to defend
the Bosnian Serbs as a nation in the court of law, however laughable that
last bit about the law may sound. Some have suggested, more rationally, that
her surrender served
the West by legitimizing the Hague Inquisition. No one even bothered to
comment on the charges themselves; vague, full of assumptions and shaky theories,
they accuse Plavsic of being the Bosnian Serbs' Hermann Goering. She pleaded
not guilty, but the outcome is already known. It will take about two years before
she is sentenced.

SHADOWS
OF THE CORONATION

It
is difficult sometimes to retain a proper perspective on events, when coverage
of the Balkans revolves around Milosevic's possible trial, Zoran Djindjic's
personality, the kangaroo trial of Biljana Plavsic, Bosnia's sham attempts at
democracy, or waiting for Montenegro to secede. But the interference of the
Empire into Balkan affairs has yet to develop to its most malignant extent.
Depleted uranium will keep poisoning the bodies of local residents as well as
occupation troops, while the depleted logic of Imperial decision-makers continues
to reverberate among the nations of the region. Just last week, the Rumanians
of Transylvania warned against several measures undertaken by Bucharest that
would foster separatism in that province – with a significant Hungarian presence
– and said they could potentially cause a "new
Kosovo."

The
limelight this weekend will be on George II, as he assumes the mantle of the
Empire amidst unprecedented security. History, however, will not be made in
the parade on Pennsylvania Avenue, but in the deep, dark shadows all over the
world, wherever the Empire of Bush's predecessors – now his to rule – has established
its ever-expanding frontiers.

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